2015 Digital Marketing Trendwatch

In 2014, we continued to see a much larger role of content optimization and social media in search engine optimization, as well as the continued growth of mobile devices. As we start to slowly adjust to writing 2015 on our documents, I wanted to take a moment to identify a few digital marketing trends that I feel will rise to prominence in the New Year, not just locally here in Chicago but on the global front.

Broader approach to digital marketing:

Each year, we get closer and closer to tying all of these web services up into an umbrella of strategies. As 2015 progresses, you will find more and more consultants who provide a host of services related to the areas of SEO, Social Media and content strategy. The reason is based on the fact that you almost need to be a generalist in multiple disciplines in order to successfully master digital marketing. Additionally, business owners are becoming more educated on the services we provide and become less fixated on a particular strategy.

Mobile SEO AND Mobile User Experience:

There’s no escaping the fact that the number of people using mobile devices to browse the web for products and services has now surpassed desktop and laptop devices. We’ve seen a lot of jibber-jabber on mobile SEO over the last couple of years but the term mobile user-experience is starting to take a stronger role. It’s essentially getting to the point where it will not only be important to have a mobile friendly website but the experience users should receive on the mobile device should be comparative to the desktop version. Additionally, Google has made strides in their webmaster programs to start testing mobile Ux – which in my opinion proves they feel secure about the matter.

Shinier carrots for content marketing:

The idea of providing someone with a pdf or ebook in the past proved to be enough to get them to act upon an action. As we move forward, consumers are becoming smarter and will want more value for their data. An ebook or pdf download will eventually not be enough to get someone to convert. Marketers will have to get more savvy with the products and services they are willing to give away in order to command new acquisitions.